Beacons of the Smart City

This chapter examines how libraries are becoming increasingly entangled in the economic agendas, planning policies, and development strategies of their cities. We outline how this process is unfolding using examples of libraries across the Asia-Pacific, Europe, North America, and South America that function as central pillars of their cities’ ‘smart city’ initiatives and digital strategies. We outline the twofold way in which this integration of public libraries into smart city planning is taking place. First, through the integration of smart city technologies—sensors, dashboards, and data analytics software—into the physical fabric of libraries. Second, and most significantly for this book, the incorporation of new services and spaces into libraries that support the underlying agendas of the smart city—to transition citizens, businesses, and government into a ‘smart’, ‘creative’, and ‘sustainable’ postindustrial knowledge economy.